Randomness

Gabrielle's ear infection is totally gone and she has remained snot free for over a week now. This is oh so glorious my friends!!! So, so Glorious!!! Unfortunately for the little chap, she is now being held responsible for doing what your average 8 month old should do and that is SLEEP!!! Yes, we have been back to sleep training. She's got her day sleep down pat but we are learning a thing or two about sleeping at night. My sweet baby girl has spent the past 3 nights in her crib (right next to my bed of course). There have been some tears but I am too tired to get all hormonal about it all.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Who says girl's don't like cars?

Hot wheels are all the rage to this one!

(and don't freak out, all y'all that are worried about her choking - I was right there!)
---------------------------------------------------------------------

During a play date:

Me: "Samuel, please take your hands out of your pants."
Samuel: No response
Me: "Samuel please take your hands out of your pants."
(as if asking politely will somehow convince him to do what I am asking)
Samuel: No response
Me: "Samuel Owen, you need to take your hands out of your pants!!!"
Samuel: (looking at me very seriously) "Mommy! I'm fixing IT!!!!"
Me: Oh...OK, sorry about that. (as I run for the sanitizer)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Speaking of sanitizer...


When your child mashes bright yellow silly putty into your brand spankin' new slip cover (which happened to be the 5th or 6th one you tried since you just couldn't find the right one); and you just got up from a lousy night of sleep; and your just not fit for human interaction - HAVE NO FEAR, HAND SANITIZER IS HERE!! Yes, that's right my friends. You can turn that frown upside down because hand sanitizer basically melts that silly putty right off your fabric without leaving a stain. Now silly putty can be silly again!

Play Date

My wonderful husband decided a few weeks ago to have his own play date with Samuel and one of his buddies. I was around, but let him run the show. I'm so glad that Tim loves to play with his children and goes out of his way to make life exciting for them.

This is what they played...

This is what they looked like...

Way to go - Dadio!!!!

Hi all! Guest Blogger Courtney here...

I want to dedicate this to my dear friend Michelle - please watch, it's worth it!

Lets catch up some more...

A few posts back I ran through the laundry list of all that has been going on in our lives - the good, the bad and the ugly. Well, here is a photo of the latter.

I mentioned that Tim had an accident at work. He was cutting some lung tissue on the cryostat machine when his hands slipped into the blade and there was blood - A LOT of blood. He wound up lacerating three of his fingers and thankfully the cuts were deep but not deep enough to hit bone!

This is all a distant memory now, but it was a ton of work taking care of my entire family. Tim could not use his hands for pretty much a week or so. Which meant I got to shower him, shave him, feed him, etc. I'm sure you don't need ALL the details. He also could not help me with the kids or the dishes or the laundry or the garbage... I was one busy woman.

To top it off, Gabrielle got a raging ear infection on New Years. This is my first experience with an ear infection. My poor baby girl cried a lot of tears. Unfortunately the first round of antibiotics did not completely get rid of that rotten little bacteria in her ear so we had to do a second round. Hopefully that will take care of it. Still, I keep hearing all these horror stories about persistent ear infections from various people. She has taken almost 30 days of antibiotics in about a 35 day period. I am giving her probiotics and so far no signs of thrush - just a lot of diarrhea.

Take a look at this pic. This is real life here at our house. Gabrielle, with a constant snot bubble, Samuel picking his nose, and me looking EXHAUSTED.

Good news is that Gabrielle has now been snot free for about 5 days, Samuel is healthy and Tim's hands are on the mend. We are slowly returning to life as we know it.

Wordless Wednesday - Christmas Catch Up

(Click on collage to enlarge)

Wordless Wednesday

Are you still there?

Warning: This is a real life post

OK, so I've been MIA. Let me sum it up for you in a few brief words...

Family member in hospital
Gabby's got a cold
Wrapping presents
Early Christmas celebration at our house
Packing up half the house to travel for the holidays
Christmas was great
Traveled home safely
Hung a few more things on my walls
Still living out of boxes
Tim lacerates three of his fingers at work
Tim goes to the ER and gets stitched up
Michelle must now give Tim a bath, wash his hair and help him put his clothes on
Michelle is doing A LOT of dishes
Snow storm
Gabby's cutting her top front teeth - BOTH AT THE SAME TIME
Stayed up all night on New Years Eve with a screaming baby
Gabby's got an ear infection
More antibiotics
Samuel pukes on kitchen table - just choking, no flu, thank God!
Celebrated my 6th year of wedded bliss

If you are still checking in, I've got lots of pictures to share and lots of stories to tell. Stay tuned for the details if you dare! Happy New year!!!